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Author: David

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There is one thing above all else that can determine how successful you can be as a carpet and upholstery cleaner.

That one thing is ‘Positioning’.

According to Jack Trout and Al Ries in their book Positioning, The Battle for Your Mind, ‘positioning’ all takes place in your customers mind. It'’s how the marketplace perceives you.

It’s likely that they already have a view on you and your service. They may think that you’re a ‘budget’ cleaner or a ‘high-end’ cleaner.

If you’re their ‘budget’ cleaner they may be very happy with your service for what they’re paying you. But if they have an insurance claim for example (and someone else is paying the bill) they may choose one of your competitors to do the work because they perceive them to be much better. It doesn’t matter whether they really are or not. In the client’s mind, they are....and that’s all that counts!

So are you viewed as just a carpet cleaner? Or as a consultant who can advise them of how to take care of their furnishings?

A carpet cleaner will only get paid so much. But a consultant, a trusted advisor will get paid much more.

Why is this? Simply put…people value consultants. If you’re taken into Accident and Emergency with severe chest pains and the consultant says “we need to operate immediately”, you don’t say “well, my brother-in-law knows a bit about heart conditions...” You trust his recommendation and go along with it. You’re relieved that you’ve found someone who knows what he’s doing. That’s exactly the same view that you want your clients to have.

But what if you feel that you don’t have this ‘expert’ status?  Then simply appoint yourself as an expert. That doesn’t mean simply pretending to be one. Instead, get all the training you need to become an expert and then convey that to the marketplace.

The best way to do this is to use ‘Education-Based Marketing’. Write reports or other educational material that can be given to interested homeowners that shows them that you are indeed an expert. For example, write an information guide that educates homeowners on why they need to have carpets cleaned regularly and how to choose a reputable carpet cleaner. Don’t make it a sales pitch. Simply present information that the homeowner can learn from and they will automatically view you as the expert. And people are desperate for information to help them make the right decision.

Other strategies could include:

  • Having an educational recorded message telephone line.
  • Acting with an air of authority (as a doctor addressing a patient) when speaking about their cleaning problems. No hesitating or pausing...just honest, confident advice from a trusted consultant, acting with their best interests at heart.
  • Giving the perception of being ‘in demand’. You want your prospects to have the attitude “I’m so glad I’ve found you. Now, how can I get on your waiting list?”

Your ultimate goal should be to position and market your business so that your prospects and customers have no choice but to come to the inescapable and undeniable conclusion that...”I would have to be thinking completely irrationally and be totally out of my mind to even consider doing business with anyone else but you regardless of price or the relationship I have with my current carpet cleaner”

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I've found that there are two kinds of carpet cleaners: Those who quote over the phone and those who don't. And both have their reasons for each process.

When you quote over the phone it's so easy. No getting in the car or van and driving many miles to see a prospect who perhaps is only interested in a low price or is getting three or four estimates... or whose carpets are beyond cleaning. However, you won't close as many jobs.

Giving an in-home quote on the other hand can be very time consuming. You may spend 20 - 30 minutes in a home but you are much more likely to secure the job.

So which is best?

There are a number of factors to consider. If you are targeting high-end homeowners, there's no doubt that giving an in-home quotation is far more profitable at the end of the day AND will save you time. The secret is to only visit those who are worthy of your valuable time. In other words, filter out all those who do not fit your ideal client criteria. This is usually not done and is the main reason why many resort to quoting over the phone.

So why does an in-home visit result in more jobs?

It's because we are able to present our case much better. We can use photos, flip charts and testimonials to persuade the prospect to use us and not a competitor. Remember marketer Dan Kennedy's question: "Why should your prospect do business with you versus every other option available to her including what she's already doing and including doing nothing at all?" Only an in-home presentation can do a good job of answering this question.

And crucially, we are told that in communication:

  • 7% of the message is conveyed by words
  • 38% by tone
  • 55% by body language

That means that by quoting over the phone more than half our message is not getting through! How can we persuade and convince someone if most of our message is hidden? It means though that we must make sure we look and sound worthy of them hiring us.

So how can an in-home presentation be more profitable? 

Apart from closing more jobs, if we're going to all the trouble of helping a prospect make a right decision by choosing our high-quality work rather than risk a competitor, then we need to be charging more for this. Higher prices = more bottom line profit.

And how can in-home quotations save us time? 

Simply by being selective who we visit in the first place. Do not visit everyone who asks! Only give in-home quotations to those who qualify. That is, they prove on the phone that they are the type of clients that we want...that they are prepared to pay a higher price for top quality work. This can be done with a series of well thought out questions.

So how can we be really sure whether we should quote over the phone or in-home?

The answer is the same as with all marketing... test! Spend one week quoting over the phone and track your results and one week only doing in-home visits but at a higher price. Note how many jobs are closed, the average job ticket as well as the time spent giving quotations. Track profit per hour.

And of course, don't forget the lifetime value of a client. It may cost us more in time and money to acquire a client in the first place but if they are worth several thousands of pounds in repeat work (for which we can quote over the phone) and referrals, what's the point in trying to save a few pounds initially by quoting over the phone?

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Many carpet cleaners have been panicking as the media constantly talks about the 'recession' here in the UK. After all, carpet cleaning is not exactly a necessity. Homeowners don’t have to have their carpets and upholstery cleaned. So when times are hard, people will spend their money on food, clothing, petrol and maybe a few feel-good items But carpet cleaning?  Hardly...unless you target the right people.

Failure to target is a very common mistake among carpet cleaners. Many feel that ‘everyone with a carpet’ is their potential customer. They often seem more intent on fighting over the scraps at the ‘price-sensitive’ end of the market. So when times get hard as they almost certainly will over the next few months, they find that customers who are more concerned about ‘price’ disappear. They are the first to cut back on non-essentials as they simply don’t have the money. In every market, there are always those who want the cheapest price and there are those who want the best…no matter what it costs.

The easiest way to survive a recession is to target those who are least affected…the high-end residential market. Those who still have a high disposable income.

If a homeowner is spending virtually 100% of their income on ‘necessities’ there’s no money left to pay for carpet cleaning. But to a person who only spends 20% of their income on necessities…they still have a lot left over to spend. These are the ones we want to be targeting.

And there are so many advantages to choosing high-end residential clients for your carpet and upholstery cleaning business.

  • You will only work between 8.30am & 4.30pm, Monday to Friday. The cleaning business is notoriously known for unsociable hours. But not if you target high-end residential clients. We only work from 8.30am – 4.30pm at the latest. We rarely work weekends. And if we do, it’s because the job is extremely high paying.
  • You don’t have to answer the telephone 24 hours a day. I used to think that it was absolutely necessary to have the telephoned answered by a live person at all times, and especially during ‘office hours.’ While it’s good if you can do this, if you set up your business properly (ie position yourself as a consultant and build a relationship with them), people will leave a message on an answering machine or will phone back later. It’s not ideal, but it sure beats being tied to the telephone in case you miss a work enquiry. I still run my business from home but have a separate business phone line that goes on to answerphone at 5pm every day. And the phone is never answered at weekends. This means you can actually take days off without feeling guilty that the phone’s not being answered.
  • Not only that, their carpets are often not very dirty. They are soiled of course, but not like you find at the lower end of the market. We often wonder why they have called us out to clean them. Their carpets also tend to be higher quality and more expensive, therefore it makes sense to them to have them maintained rather than replaced. It’s easier to justify cost of cleaning versus much larger cost of replacement. As we know, higher quality carpets look better after cleaning than cheap synthetics.
  • High-end clients tend to be more loyal. Usually they have difficulty finding good tradesman that they feel comfortable with. Now that they have found you – they will stick with you. Unlike commercial carpet cleaning who are always looking for a cheaper price. Or there can be a change of manager. He brings in his old cleaners. Or he decides to flex his muscles by reducing cleaning costs so he can look like a hero to his boss. Many commercial contracts have been lost not due to poor work, but simply a change of management and different ideas.
  • High-end residential clients are not as price sensitive. They are generally old enough to have had bad experiences – they know you can always get it cheaper but that you “get what you pay for.” One of my clients used to quote his grandmother - “Buy cheap – buy thrice.” Many of my clients happily spend £400, £500 and more to have their carpets cleaned without batting an eyelid. But of course, it’s all relative. If that figure is but a small part of their disposable income, they are hardly going to be trying to knock you down on price to save a ‘mere’ £50.
  • It’s possible to build a relationship with them. This is absolutely critical. The best business relationships are just that...relationships. Transaction buyers hop from supplier to supplier when they have a ‘Sale’...not so with ‘Relationship’ buyers. They trust you as their advisor who wants the best for them.

So, to avoid the recession…just change your customers to better ones.

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What do most people fear about inviting a salesman to their homes? Yes, it’s fear of being a victim of high-pressure selling.

However, whereas people don’t like to be ‘sold’ anything, they do like to buy. They like to feel that they are in control of the buying situation and are not being manipulated.

Education based marketing does a great job of this. It gives people what they want (information) and removes what they don’t want (a sales pitch).

Homeowners do have to be educated about carpet and fabric cleaning. How often have you had this said to you? - “My dining room carpet doesn’t need cleaning yet as it’s only been down eight years.”

As we know, appearance is not the only reason to clean carpets. More people will respond to our message if we let them know that their carpets actually are dirty because carpets hide all the soil before it’s visible. And that they can save the expense of early replacement by maintaining their costly investment.

So how exactly do you do it?

1. First, appoint yourself as an expert. No-one else is going to do this for you. Then write some reports or other educational material that can be given to interested homeowners that shows them that you are indeed an expert.

2. Write a Consumers’ Guide. A booklet such as a consumer guide educates homeowners on why they need to have carpets cleaned regularly and how to choose a reputable carpet cleaner. Don’t make it a sales pitch at all. Simply present information that the homeowner can learn from and they will view you as the expert. People are desperate for information to help them make the right decision.

3. Make sure you don’t use ‘image’ advertising. Leave this for the big boys who can afford to waste some of their money. A small business owner needs to know that every advert is really a ‘salesman in print’ that has to earn its keep. Again, give the consumer information so they can make an informed decision.

4. Have a recorded message telephone line. There are many telecoms companies in the UK now that provide these. You can record an educational message which can last ten minutes or so and cover areas such as:

  • misconceptions about carpet cleaning
  • different methods of cleaning
  • how to choose a carpet cleaner

These also have the hidden benefit of pre-qualifying prospects. Those who simply want a ‘cheap and cheerful clean’ will realise that that’s not what you do and won’t waste your valuable time.

Plus, prospects can get what they want (information) anytime of the day or night without you have to spend time with them.

It’s completely automated.

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‘Image Suicide’ is an expression used by marketing legend, the late Gary Halbert. It is so important. Virtually all small businesses do ‘image advertising’ where the impression of the company is more important than anything else. They hope to portray their company image as “professional”.

Yet prospective customers do not care at all about your image or your logo. They only want to know “what’s in it for them.” And that’s what they respond to.

Marketing is like fishing...and you are really ‘fishing’ for customers. Image advertising is like fishing with a big fancy expensive pole and lure.

But what’s more effective? Having a fancy fishing pole with all the bells and whistles or just a simple rod with fat juicy bait on it? Which one do you think will attract more fish? Surely the bait is the most important thing. It’s what the fish really want. They don’t care about the rod at all.

And at the end of the day, you cannot go to your bank and deposit ‘image’...you can only deposit money!

So just how important is your image...that is, ‘getting your name out there’?

I think that the only time that image is important is if it is incongruent with what you’re trying to say to your market and therefore stops people from doing business with you.

I recently took a friend of mine to an emergency NHS dentist. We all know how to identify a dentist...he wears a blue or white gown and looks like a dentist! But this man had a pair of jeans on under his gown. It certainly made me think twice when I saw him. If he’d been a private dentist (ie ‘one you pay for’), I think I would have suggested going elsewhere as his image was simply incongruent with his message. He did not build trust.

So of course you should have a clean van and equipment and professional looking stationery, but still the most important thing as far as the customers is concerned is...“Can I trust you to give me what I want?”

It’s exactly as a CEO of an American airline once said: “If your toilets are dirty it means you don’t maintain you engines properly”. This is the link that a customer makes in his mind whether it’s rational or not. But it’s a link that affects whether they will use you or not!

So what is far more important than ‘getting your name out there’ with image type advertising?

Well, imagine if you could fly over your town and all the houses of people who were thinking of having their carpets cleaned next month lit up. That would be far more valuable to you.

This can be done with ‘lead-generation’ type advertising rather than ‘image’ advertising where prospective customers identify themselves, perhaps by phoning for some free information. After all, this is the bait that they really want. You could then target them with your message with very little waste as they would all be interested. So rather than thinking of ways to ‘get your name out there’ think of ways to ‘get their name in here,’ that is into your database so you can now target them with an opportunity to use your service.

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Here’s one of the simplest ways to come up with a profitable promotion that hardly takes any time at all.

Over the past few posts, we’ve seen how important it is to know our numbers...the number of enquiries from a given advert or flyer...the cost of acquiring a new client... how much it costs to get the job from each advert and so on. It’s important to know what’s really going on in your business.

Whereas tracking numbers is important...it’s equally important to monitor that information regularly. It’s a good idea to have this built into a system too, so that you can repeat successful ways of getting clients. And not waste more money on those that don’t.

I have a spreadsheet which tells me the results of each strategy I have used over the past eight years (and there were over 45 last year alone!). I know the cost of delivering my message to my prospects and I know how much revenue it generated to the penny. I then know the Return on Investment (ROI) for each strategy.

In January I was looking for a promotion that I could use to encourage new clients to try us out while it’s quiet. I didn’t mind if I really didn’t make any money at this time of year as I could always ‘work the back-end’ that is I would show a profit when they used us again, hopefully in 12 months or even when they referred us to a friend.

I realised that I had done what so many businesses do...use a strategy that works really well, get a ton of work off of it...and then never use it again! Which is strange really. After all, if you had a machine that consistently paid you out £5 every time you put a pound coin in...how much would you put in? The answer should be “ALL YOU’VE GOT” After all...why wouldn’t you?

I realised that although I had tracked all my numbers, I hadn’t reviewed some of them for some time. And I came across a strategy I hadn’t used for over five years. Last time I used it (in January 2003), it pulled in 88 enquiries in just 3 days! I remember repeatedly having to take the phone off the hook just to be able to enter customers’ details on the computer before the phone rang again.

And yet I’ve never used it since.

I have a system of reviewing all my numbers on a monthly basis but for some reason I just hadn’t noticed this phenomenal strategy.

The lesson? Look back over all your advertising and marketing strategies and see if any of them did really well. If they did – just do it again or roll it out on a larger scale! It’s that simple yet hardly anyone does it.

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In last post I looked at the need for a selling system in your business. This time I want to focus on two very important parts of this system. In fact, without them you’re almost certainly leaving money behind on the table that could very easily be yours.

A few weeks ago I was looking for a holiday in Egypt for two weeks this February. I finally found a hotel I wanted, but it took me 2 weeks of procrastinating to finally book it. The reason why is interesting and has a direct bearing on whether or not our prospects will choose us or a competitor to clean their carpets...or even no-one at all!

After finding a hotel I liked, I ‘Googled’ it and looked at different reviews from other holidaymakers who had been there. (eg: tripadvisor.co.uk is an excellent site). But some of the reviews were of concern...”food was not very warm”...”food was repetitive after two weeks”...”staff were rude and unhelpful.”

It instantly stopped me in my tracks.

All buying decisions are emotional and we act in irrational ways at times.  One of the biggest motivators is fear...in this case fear of making a mistake. And it held me up for a couple of weeks from booking my holiday.

This is exactly the same for homeowners who want us to clean their carpets. They are afraid of making a mistake. (Isn’t this why we prefer to have someone recommended to us?). They have heard the horror stories of carpets wet for days, of rapid re-soiling, of shrinkage. They don’t want to make a mistake. They don’t want to pay too much...or too little. They don’t want their friends saying “You paid how much for that! I could have got you that for much less.” Not wanting to be seen to have made a mistake is a very powerful motivator for people NOT to take action now. The more we can remove that fear the more successful we will be at closing the sale.

So what can we do? I eventually booked the hotel after looking at other reviews and realising that the bad reviews were probably not accurate (even the best businesses have bad clients who complain). But what clinched it for me was when my sister-in-law said she had been there, knew the hotel and that it was one of the best in the area. In other words, a good TESTIMONIAL. It gave me the reassurance I needed.

Our customers are no different.

Have you ever had it said to you: “I wasn’t sure about you but then I found out that our neighbour has used you and that’s why I’m booking you.”

What can give them this reassurance so that they feel comfortable making a buying decision? Testimonials and a strong guarantee! They simply remove the fear of making a mistake.

Prospects probably have many questions that they are just not asking...about whether you really will do a good job...really will respect their home...and really are worth the extra cost. And if you are more expensive you need to give them the reasons why, so that they can explain to their friends why they have made the decision they have.

Testimonials and a bold guarantee are an important part of this and should be part of our structured selling system.

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Why should you have a system for selling in your business?

Well, have you ever had this situation?...

You arrive at a prospects home to give them a quotation for cleaning carpets or upholstery. As you pull up outside the home you know instantly that they will not be using your service.

The front garden is overgrown. The house needs painting. And there’s an old car in the drive in a state of disrepair. You ask yourself “What on earth am I doing here?”

It’s a situation I have had many times until I put in place a system for selling to prospects. Including most importantly, disqualifying those I don’t want. I only want to deal with high-probability prospects. That is, those who have a very good chance of using us.

Nowadays all our interactions with prospects and clients are written down in our Operations Manual and we are always in control, even if it appears that we aren’t.

So when a prospect phones us to ask “How much do you charge?” we have a scripted reply. We don’t just wing it. Even the way, that is, the manner of how we answer is documented. It’s a system and it works.

Selling is a process that begins with making sure we’re dealing with the right person. The attitude we want to have is not one of hard selling...trying to beat the prospect into submitting to our proposal. After all no-one likes being ‘sold’ to, but everyone does like to buy.

Our view should be "How can I help this person get what he wants through the use of my service?" That means that first we must be speaking to a qualified prospect.

But what exactly is a qualified prospect?

They are someone who:

  1. Must be able to buy
  2. Must be able to enjoy a benefit
  3. Must be the decision maker

So if you’re a high-priced, high-quality service, you don’t want to be wasting time going out and giving in-home quotes to tenants wanting their deposit back for instance. Or those who clearly can’t afford you. You will probably close one out of every hundred. Asking them if they could borrow the money off their brother so they can pay you is a lot harder work than simply finding the right person to start with. It’s simply not a good use of your time.

There are four steps to a selling system:

Step 1: Build trust and rapport.

Step 2: Find the need.  Probe to isolate needs, opportunities and wants. Isolate the dominant buying motive.

Step 3: Fill the need.  Present products and services that fill the dominant buying motive.

Step 4: Close.  i.e. Motivate them to take action.

Each of these steps needs to be carefully thought out and written down. Many small business owners have no earthly idea what they are going to say next to a prospect. Step 2 involves asking a lot of questions to find out what the prospect wants rather than us telling them what they should have or talking about ourselves and how great our company is. It’s also helpful to have a systemised way of dealing with ‘common objections’.

So how do you answer that question when a prospect phones to ask...”Can you give me a price for cleaning our carpets?”

Our answer is always “No.” Well not quite like that. Here’s what we do and it’s written down on a scripted form. Our target market is high-end residential who can pay our prices for high quality work. We are not interested in price shoppers or tenants wanting their deposit back...so we have a script so that we don’t waste our valuable time with them.

Our system is very simple: we first try to disqualify them!

In other words, we ask them questions to make them jump through a few hoops to prove that ‘we’re made for each other’. And we tell them why we are asking these questions. We don’t want to waste each others time. Every week we turn away many phone enquirers because we tell them that “we are not the company for them.” After all, there’s no point in walking into a BMW dealer with £5000 to buy a brand new 3-series. We will just be wasting each others time.

In fact, a failure to target a market (high end residential, budget or whatever) and qualify them, is one of the biggest time wasters that most carpet cleaners make and the reason why many are exhausted and frustrated by the end of the week. Our systemised scripts mean it’s not a problem for us.

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I’ve found that one of the first questions carpet cleaners ask other carpet cleaners is “How much do you charge per square foot or per square metre?” along with “What are you turning over at the moment?” as though this is a measure of success.

I come across cleaners who are turning over £50,000, £100,000 and above. Maybe even £200,000. But does that mean that they are successful? The answer has to do with how much are they taking home? And how much do they have to do to get it?

It’s amazing how many small business owners are simply unaware of the cost of running their business. It reminds me of the old sales story that’s done the rounds for many years and goes something like this: A lady buys apples at 10p each and sells them at £1 a dozen. When asked how that works she explains “I make it up in volume!”

But business is not all about volume...it’s about margins and profit.

Strangely enough, many carpet cleaners think it’s all about volume. If only their business was systemised, they would know that they might be better off dealing only with high-end clients who are prepared to pay for high quality work. It’s far easier to make money by selling half as much but at double the price.

One of the interesting statistics to come out of my ‘numbers’ over the last year has been that my sales are down by about 10% but profit has risen. This has been accomplished largely by ‘qualifying’ people who enquire about my service. In other words, I’m not wasting as much time and money as before dealing with unqualified prospects. Our policy is to get phone enquirers to ‘prove’ that they are worthy of us giving them our time before we ever decide to give them a quotation. In other words, they have to qualify themselves first.

I’m amazed at how many carpet cleaners are very busy but are absolutely wearing themselves out. Several jobs a day then coming home to pick up enquiries then off to do in home quotations. Many cleaners would be better off with a job getting over 4 weeks holiday every year and being able to forget the job when you leave at the end of the day.

My advice? Concentrate on the profit not the gross sales! Work out exactly how much you are making on each job (that means ‘knowing your numbers’). Business is all about margins not gross sales. What’s important is not gross sales or price per sq ft but what you’re left with at the end of the day. Provide a high quality service to those who want and are prepared to pay more for it. Don’t meet with anyone who is not a good quality prospect. And use phone scripts with questions that filter out all the time-wasters (ie the ‘price shoppers’).